Posts Tagged ‘ICBM’

North Korea launched it’s 3 stage rocket and told it’s people it now has a satellite orbiting the earth. The launch occured at 2:30 UTC. Actually, the payload was tracked by U.S. intelligence to have fallen into the Pacific, and no payload ever made it into orbit.

The rocket was a Taepondong-2, a rip-off from Soviet technology which has a range of around 4,500 miles and can handle a payload of less than 500 kg. Trying to make their new rocket used for carrying a “satellite” seem less of a  threat, they renamed the exact system the “Unha” before launching this year’s test. According to North Koreans, their mission was a sucess and news of their “triumph” is still being broadcast throughout the country.

Countries around the world are deciding what to do to pushing North Korea, and the ones most adamant about doing so seem to be the South Koreans and Japanese.

On Friday, December 5th a long range ballistic missile was fired from Alaska was destroyed by a California-based interceptor missile. The test itself wasn’t fully successful, as the ballistic missile failed to deploy countermeasures to test if the interceptor would choose the the warhead instead of the decoy(s). The USSR developed missile defense countermeasures on their ICBMS, huge “balloons” that supposedly would fool the interceptor missiles. Regardless, I think the technology and precision displayed by the interceptor, hitting a rocket in air, is commendable.

This is not a first, as one might think. Anti-ballistic missiles have already been around for quite some time, and two ABM systems have already been successful against ICBMs including Russia’s A-35 and the United State’s Safeguard system (LIM-49 and Sprint missiles).

The first anti-missile systems were conceived by the British while trying to shoot down German V-1 and V-2 rockets using concentrated artillery gun (flak) fire.

Above: A German V-2 Being Launched from France towards England during WWII.